The man who attacked Strasbourg’s Christmas market on Tuesday has been shot dead by French police, the interior minister has said.
Three people have died following the shooting at the market and several more have been seriously injured. The shooter, Cherif Chekatt, was 29 and had a long list of criminal convictions in France and Germany. It is said he had become a radical Islamist in jail.
This was the picture issued by the French police.
Chekatt was found when Police began to pursue him in the street after they realised he matched the shooters description. He then began to open fire on the officers, luckily none of the officers were hurt, but Chekatt was shot dead in the encounter.
Prior to this, hundreds of French police and security forces had been searching for Chekatt and a large police operation had taken place in Neudorf earlier on Thursday, but ended apparently without results.
Five people have been arrested in connection with the attack. They include Cherif Chekatt’s parents and two of his brothers.
The bullet marks on the door where the suspected #Strasbourg gunman #CheriffChekatt was shot dead by police patrol officers on Rue du Lazaret In #Neudorf last night. pic.twitter.com/gpSbyVGAfl
— Gavin Lee (@GavinLeeBBC) December 14, 2018
Chekatt was born in Strasbourg and was already known to the French security services.
He was on the “fiche S” watchlist of people who the government condsidered a potential threat to national security. He had 27 convictions for crimes in France, Germany and Switzerland, and had spent a lot of time in prison as a result of his actions.
Police were looking for him on Tuesday morning in connection with another case, but he wasn’t at home. When authorities searched his apartment in Neudorf, a grenade, a rifle, four knives, (two of which were hunting knives), and ammunition were found in his posession.
According to the BBC, the Islamic State group’s self-styled news agency, Amaq, on Thursday said that Chekatt was “an Islamic State soldier” who had “carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting citizens of coalition countries” fighting its militants in Syria and Iraq.
Three people were killed in the heartless attack and 5 others seriously injured; one declared brain dead.
